We don’t know when The Avengers 3 is going to be released. We don’t know who’s going to write it, who’s going to direct it, but we always thought we know who’d star. Now, even that may be up in the air.

A new rumor says that whatever Marvel Studios has planned for the eventual third Avengers film isn’t what we think at all. It may not even feature many of the big stars of Phase 1 and 2. Stars like Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. According to the rumor, Marvel might be packing Avengers 3 with the new stars of their universe. Characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange setting up some kind of even bigger event after that. Read more about this Avengers 3 rumor below.

Imagine an Avengers 3 without Thor or Captain America, maybe without Black Widow. It’s a movie where the secondary characters from the MCU get to stand up and prove their worth, possibly even setting up their own spin-offs. With Guardians Marvel has shown that their brand is the star, and by the time we get to A3 clearly people will be on board with the entire universe. Keep Iron Man – Robert Downey Jr’s renegotiated contract seems to specify Avengers 3 as his next film – and you have a new launching pad for characters to take over from the current big guns.

Pointed out in that piece, this makes a lot of sense because of dollars and cents. Evans, Hemsworth and others each have two movies on the original contracts. They can make one more movie in their own universe (Captain America and Thor 3 for example) and then do another film – let’s hypothetically call it Avengers 4 – to totally change everything. However, the Badass Digest piece hypothesizes it could be something more along the lines of Marvel’s Infinity Gauntlet or Marvel’s Secret War. And in this film, you could even bring in TV characters and more.

We all assumed Avengers 3 was going to be the big crossover where everything came together in a battle with Thanos. If this rumor is true though, Marvel is one step ahead of everyone again, going with an even bigger plan.

Much like the end of the first Avengers, we should have a much better idea of what Marvel has planned next summer when Avengers: Age of Ultron ends. Until then, what do you think about an Avengers 3 without the stars of the first two movies?